happy anniversary, new orleans

I'm sure the residents -- and exiles -- of New Orleans will appreciate the de facto President's taking responsibility for the response -- or lack thereof -- to Hurricane Katrina. That, and $3.75, will get them a cup of coffee at a Starbucks, if they can find one in their still-devastated neighborhoods. It is an embarrassment that one year later parts of New Orleans look like they were just bombed by the Israeli Air Force. Neil Young, on his "Living With War" album, asks the question, "if Al Qaeda had bombed the levees, would New Orleans be any safer?" I wonder if that had been a terror attack, instead of a human-compounded natural disaster, whether the recovery response would have been better.

Probably not. After all, New Orleans reliably votes for the Democrats.